Blackstone Inc. $BX Holdings Decreased by GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC

Key Points

• GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC cut its Blackstone stake by 65.6% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with 6,084 shares valued at about $938,000.
• Institutional ownership remains heavy, with firms like Vanguard, State Street, Northern Trust, Legal & General, and Invesco all adding to their positions; overall, 70% of Blackstone stock is held by institutions.
• Blackstone reported Q1 earnings of $1.36 per share, slightly beating estimates, while revenue rose 10% year over year; the company also paid a quarterly dividend of $1.16 per share, equivalent to a 3.9% yield.

GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 65.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,084 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 11,582 shares during the quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC's holdings in Blackstone were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,667,695 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $11,046,859,000 after buying an additional 840,258 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $5,358,334,000 after buying an additional 412,281 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Blackstone by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,324,989 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $1,251,474,000 after acquiring an additional 329,379 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Blackstone by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,677,997 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $799,236,000 after acquiring an additional 145,056 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Blackstone by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,107,665 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $701,795,000 after acquiring an additional 416,933 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Blackstone from $156.00 to $146.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $173.00 price objective on Blackstone in a report on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research lowered Blackstone from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Blackstone from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $151.05.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total transaction of $3,775,461.06. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 899,669 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $113,169,363.51. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 2,868,069 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $75,000,004.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 18,628,295 shares of the company's stock, valued at $487,129,914.25. This trade represents a 18.20% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 13,502,092 shares of company stock valued at $294,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares valued at $46,457,920. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $118.58 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $117.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $133.62. The firm has a market cap of $88.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.73 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.Blackstone's revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.11 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Blackstone's payout ratio is 118.67%.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc NYSE: BX is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone's business is organized around several principal investment platforms.

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